196 APPENDIX« 
are solely due to their having failed to separate it completely from 
colouring material, I am also of opinion that aristin partakes o 
the nature of the yellow substance* obtained by previous observers, 
and that, according to some remarks of Dymock and Warden, it is 
probably present in the root of Aristolochia indica, 
Aristolochin is the name given by Dr. J. Pohl to the active 
principle of the seeds of Aristolochia Clematitis and the roots of 
A. rotunda and A. longa, The powdered drugs were exhausted with 
petroleum-ether, which removed chlorophyll, oil, and a gelatinous, 
nitrogenous, inactive substance (occasionally this can be obtained 
crystalline) ; warm 96 per cent. alcohol removed the colouring and 
bitter principles; after evaporating to syrupy consistence it was 
taken up with water and acidulated with sulphuric acid, the preci- 
pitate collected, expressed, dried at 40° C., and extracted in a Soxhlet 
apparatus for some weeks with petroleum-ether until the last traces 
of the above-mentioned nitrogenous substance were removed and 
the residue exhausted with alcohol or ether; from this alcoholic or 
ethereal solution there separated after a time yellow crystalline 
masses, which, recrystallized several times from ethereal solution, 
were found to constitute the active principle. It is soluble in chloro- 
form, ether, acetone, phenol, acetic anhydride, aniline, and alcohol ; 
almost insoluble in cold water, slightly soluble in warm water ; 
insoluble in pertroleum-cther, benzol, and carbon disulphide ; alkalies 
and alkaline-earth hydrates dissolve it: from neutral or alkaline 
solutions it is precipitated by neutral and basic lead acetate, dialyzed 
iron, zinc sulphate, silver nitrate, and a saturated solution of salt, 
but not by alum, copper sulphate, and platinic chloride ; it does not 
reduce Fehling’s solution and does not react with Millon’s reagent. 
Tts ultimate analysis, C 59°98, H 3-54, N 4-32, O 32°16, leads to the. 
formula ©°°H*?N*O** Physiologically it was found that cold- 
blooded animals were entirely indifferent to it; while in warm- 
blooded animals uremic intoxication was produced ; in this respect 
aristolochin is a much more powerful agent than any other sub- 
stance ; it resembles aloin in its action upon thefkidneys, but is about 
ten times more poisonous—it is probable that given to man it may 
act as a cathartic (Arch. f. exper. Pathol. u. Pharm.). (Apoth, Ztg. 
189 1,642.) 
* See Pharm. Journ., li,, 245. 
